District 1 boys’ semifinals: Ches-Mont’s Avon Grove, Bishop Shanahan will meet for title

When pressed to recap his day Tuesday, Bishop Shanahan goalie Jason Yoquinto didn’t need any prodding about the highlights of his Eagles’ 10-8 win over No. 3 seed Radnor at Henderson in the District 1 semifinals.

Automatically, two moments jumped out. One was his stoning of McKenna Touey on the doorstep, stemming the tide of a two-goal run by the Raiders late in the second quarter where they could have tied the game.

The other came in the waning moments of the third quarter when he robbed Jack Norton at point-blank range.

“He got the ball near the crease, and he just faked, faked, faked and shot high, and I saved it,” said Yoquinto, who posted 13 saves in all. “My mind just blew. That was an amazing save to keep us in that game.”

The correlation was obvious to the Eagles: Each time Yoquinto made a big save, keeping or reclaiming the momentum, the team responded quickly, ultimately spelling the difference between the teams.

Shanahan’s victory vaulted the second-seeded Eagles (18-1) into Thursday’s title game against Ches-Mont rival Avon Grove at Henderson. Avon Grove toppled Springfield-Delco, 8-5, in the second semifinal.

“Jay had to stand on his head for us,” Shanahan coach John Heisman said of Yoquinto. “He made four or five one-on-ones. Him keeping us still above water was huge for us. I think even if they scored we could’ve rebounded, but him doing that really helped us. He steadied the ship a little bit, gave us some possession a little bit and gave our team a chance to rest a little bit.”

The stop on Touey was followed within a matter of seconds by John Mehok’s second goal of the game and a Dylan Alderman tally with 7.8 seconds left. Instead of a 5-5 game, the second-seeded Eagles headed into halftime with a 7-4 lead.

In the third, when Norton (two goals, two assists) had a chance to cut the deficit to one, Yoquinto stepped up again.

“When I see a lot of shots, it gives me a chance to be able to get in the routine of saving the shots, seeing the ball,” he said. “It doesn’t just let me sit there and think too long. It helps me be able to be ready for that shot.”

Offensively, the Eagles produced their typical varied attack. They got the hard-nosed goals, like Mehok’s two unassisted tallies or Dylan Alderman completing his hat trick with a wraparound of the cage with a defender draped on him. They also found the hustle goals, like when Sam Montgomery and Alderman, in the second and third quarters, respectively, were the quickest to loose balls at the top of the crease to score.

Radnor had its share of chances, thanks in large part to Tom Meyers going 18-for-22 on faceoffs in a dominant performance. But they could never quite get even, thanks to Yoquinto.

Jack Wilson (three goals, three assists) got them closest in the second half, scoring twice within a minute to get the score to 8-7. But Eric Gianetti scored in the final minute of the frame, then the Shanahan defense kept the Raiders off the board for the first 10 minutes of the fourth quarter to preserve the margin and give Radnor plenty to rue.

“If you just stand there, you see the little mistakes that can easily be picked up, and it gets really frustrating,” Radnor LSM Sam Camp said. “But there’s nothing you can do about it. You just have to pick it up and still go out there.”

In the other semifinal:

Avon Grove 8, Springfield-Delco 5

Bryce Reid knew it was a risk. But when it came off for him and Tanner Peck, though, it was worth it.

Against the stout resistance of Springfield goaltender James Spence (nine saves), it took a couple of unconventional, over-the-shoulder shots from Reid (early in the second quarter) and Peck (with 20.9 ticks left to half) to put the Red Devils into an all-Ches-Mont final.

“We knew the goalie was going to hug the post real tight, but when it’s there, it’s there,” said Reid, who scored three goals. “Coach says to take the shot when it’s there, so it was there, and I took it. … In the right moment, I think it’s the right shot to take, and I think I took it and I took it well. If it’s a stupid one, then you don’t want to go back (to the bench), but if you have it, you have to take the chance.”

No. 5 seed Avon Grove gave itself some breathing room with goals by Peck and Jake Pousson in the final 81 seconds of the first half after Luke Charamella’s goal had put the Cougars up, 3-2.

Beau Kush scored twice in the second half, the latter goal at 3:26 of the fourth quarter off a bad bounce off the stick of Springfield defenseman John Ferguson, and Ryan Cook added three assists for the Red Devils, who got five saves from Will Schreiner.

Charamella was one of the five goalscorers for No. 8 Springfield and also added the only assist for the Cougars, who were unable to get much going on offense.

“The long possessions really give our defense a break, sets up our offense,” said Dan Dickinson, who scored in the third quarter on a superb solo effort, of the game’s deliberate pace. “Being down a couple of guys, being short on offense, it opens us up on offense and gives us better looks, but I think today we tried to push too hard. We didn’t give ourselves long enough possessions.”

The win by Avon Grove sets up an all-Chesco grudge match that the Red Devils were looking forward to.

“It’s unbelievable,” said Peck, who scored twice. “We’re coming in ready to play, for sure. Hungry is an understatement. … We’ve seen them before. We’ve prepared for them before, and we didn’t come out on our game. And we have to defend our title.”